January 25, 2018March 6, 2018 Heather January 25, 2018 – Motus Global is bringing big changes to its motusTHROW app ahead of the 2018 season. The free update will be available on the App Store just in time for Spring Training. The update to the app will work with current motusTHROW sensors, giving new functionality and improving the ability for pitchers, coaches, and parents to reduce risk and improve performance through the use of the motusTHROW. The motusTHROW is currently the only pitching wearable approved by MLB and remains the best-selling baseball pitching wearable ever. With this upcoming update, Motus is improving the thousands of current units already on the field and affirming Motus’ commitment to baseball players at all levels. Ben Hansen, the Chief Technology Officer at Motus, is driving forward on what he feels will be a game changer. “Baseball Pitchers are facing an epidemic. Over a third of MLB pitchers have had Tommy John Surgery,” he explains. “What’s more, this epidemic is growing even faster in youth players with a 300% increase since 2002. The system is broken and it’s time to fix it!” The new motusTHROW app keeps a focus on readiness. By tracking the entire workload of a pitcher, the new machine learning engine helps keep a pitcher in the safe zone. The readiness score is front and center, allowing a pitcher, parent, or coach to get an at-a-glance idea of where they should be, digging deeper into the app to get insights into what they’ve done and what they should do to maximize their readiness, ramp up to the season, or recover from a heavy workload. The new Motus machine learning system integrates with every coaching philosophy and style, focusing on giving suggestions to enhance the training and throwing process, rather than enforcing any single style or mechanic. By helping to manage the workload and freeing coaches to do more on-field, one-on-one coaching, the Motus intelligence and the motusTHROW become a partner, not a dictator. “We’re excited to bring such an incredible system to every pitcher,” said Hansen. “It’s machine intelligence and the best practices of sports science, all wrapped in an easy to use app that is simple enough to understand from launch. Users will now have access to state-of-the-art workload measures at their fingertips that map to a player’s readiness each day. We’re also unlocking intuitive features that recommend optimal training loads in terms of warmup & muscle activation, throwing programs, and recovery strategies.” Research in baseball, based off the groundbreaking work of Dr. Tim Gabbett on acute to chronic workload, has shown that keeping a pitching arm in the “safe zone” is key to reducing injury and maximizing performance. A recent study collected nearly 200,000 throws from a high school team and showed the getting out of the “safe zone” of workload increased the risk of injury by twenty-six times! This is an area of rapid change. New research is being done across many areas and as Motus learns more and builds out the data set, updates can reflect these changes. In addition, Motus will have a bigger individual data set to work with for each athlete, increasing as they use the motusTHROW more. “Give me 28 days,” said Carlo Alvarez, Director of Performance for Motus. The former performance coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cleveland Indians knows how important workload management is to getting athletes ready and then keeping them at optimal readiness over the long term. “Once the data is collected, we can make great suggestions to keep an athlete where they need to be no matter the demands. It takes under a month to get that chronic workload into the ‘known’ and from there, the insights become even more valuable. MLB teams have whole staffs to reduce risk and improve performance. Now every pitcher can have their own performance coach!” Despite the high-tech, sport science focus, motusTHROW is still very easy to use. The app puts the readiness score front and center, with additional measures like arm speed, arm slot, and elbow stress presented in easy to understand formats. The system is designed to have enough information to satisfy MLB teams while being simple enough to use by a Little League parent. The update to motusTHROW also takes advantage of hardware advances. The newest generation of phones and motusSENSOR uses higher bandwidth Bluetooth to speed downloads, create stable connections, and also allows for multi-sensor networks in other products like motusONE, motusCONCUSSION, and motusVB. Taking the data a step further is possible as well. The update to motusTHROW integrates hand-in-glove with motusDASH. MotusDASH is the desktop, web-based data analytics platform that allows for deeper analysis and the management of multiple athletes. The system isn’t necessary to use motusTHROW, but pairing both together makes for the most powerful analytics package for teams that need that functionality. MotusDASH has also been completely updated and will be available by subscription beginning in February. The motusTHROW is the only wearable pitching device that is approved for in-game use by MLB. With this upcoming update, Motus is bringing the best pitching technology to bear on the problem of elbow injuries. For more information on Motus Global or on motusTHROW, contact Will Carroll at will@motusglobal.com. MotusDASH is not required for use of motusTHROW.